TaylorMade's Tom Olsavsky to join Cobra-Puma Golf

Tom Olsavsky, senior director of product creation at TaylorMade, will replace Tom Preece as the vice president of research and development for Cobra-Puma Golf. Olsavsky, 49, spent 17 years at TaylorMade, the last seven in his current role. Many in the industry consider Olsavsky to be a big part of TaylorMade’s recent success, which includes record sales of $1.7 billion and a 47 percent market share in the metalwood category in 2012. According to sources close to the matter, Olsavsky’s signing is considered a “big win” by top Cobra-Puma officials, who have struggled to establish Cobra as a true rival to larger golf equipment companies such as TaylorMade, Callaway, Nike, Ping and Titleist, whose parent company Acushnet sold Cobra to Puma SE in March 2010. Preece decided to leave Cobra-Puma in September after spending almost 10 years with the company. He is currently listed a...